Yenya's World

Fri, 10 Aug 2007

Frying Pan

Our relatively new (~1 year) frying pan with teflon coating is becoming
more and more sticky, so we are looking for a replacement. However,
I don't think buying the new frying pan every year is the right solution
to the problem.

So far the average lifetime of our frying pans has been slightly more
than a year, with almost daily usage. After that, it either become sticky,
or the teflon coating started to crack and fall off. And we are
(at least moderately) cautious about the pan surface - we don't use sharp
accessories inside of it, we don't put it in the dishwasher, etc.

With the exception of cast iron frying pans, a Teflon coating can be applied to the surface of the pan to make it non-stick. This is popular for frying pans sold to the home user but less so for those used by professional cooks and restaurants. Cast iron naturally becomes non-stick through use and so would not benefit from a Teflon coating.

Is it true - do I want a cast iron pan? So far the Teflon-coated frying pans seem like an example of
a product with a built-in obsolescence, designed to keep the manufacturer's
cash flow steady. What about other materials (like titanium)? My dear lazyweb,
what frying pan do you use/recommend, and what is the average lifetime of it?

5 replies for this story:

Hi,
I bought a teflon pan from Tefal about 5 years ago and it worked great all this time. The surface is a bit scratched now, but probably due to sharp utensils a friend of mine used it on it - it is not sticky. I'm a single user, but I use it quite frequently (2x a week or more). I read somewhere that it helps if the teflon cools down when covered with oil (ie. it is better if you do not wash it immediately after usage). I'm not sure about the explanation why this help (it allegedly helps teflon to stay non-sticky), but it seemed to work.Also, I wash it thoroughly only from outside. From inside, I get of the remnants of food, but let the teflon stay a bit oily.
Of course, I also had a few bad experiences with no-name teflon pans, so maybe I was just lucky this time.

Also for me Tefal rulez. I have been using it for five years frequently and it was only scratched by knives. Now we have two new Tefals from wedding. You can even use a non-sharp metal tools (like spoon) on pan and they will not damage it. It is also written in manual that you can and it is for me a guarantee, that Tefal is a quality pan. Other manufacturers restricts using of any metal things on the pan, in other case they revoke a guarantee. And with non-sticky cast pans I do not know. We have one iron pan (probaly not a cat one) without teflon and it is definitely so sticky, that you must use a bunch of oil to cook an egg.

I can recommend Le Creuset cookware (e.g. http://www.dokuchyne.cz/lecreuset/), it's been great for the 2 years I've had it and you get a free replacement if anything happens to it that I've heard other people to exercise successfully. The warranty is 10 years for non-stick cookware like frying pans that you're asking about (for wok, it's lifetime). It's definitely not cheap though, but you can find yourself a discount on eBay or elsewhere (that's what I did). But someone famous once said that he wasn't rich enough to buy cheap things...

One of my friends bought an iron pan in some Chinese shop in Prague, quite expensive one for Chinese shops standards, by the way. He was advised to do some magic with an oil and his pan at the beginning (I do not remember exactly) and he got a pan which is less sticky than any of the teflon pans I have ever had (even the Tefal ones).
I know I have not helped you much, but at least I can confirm your story. (BTW, you surely know that eating fried meals every day is not the best choice... ;-))